These are first results with BMW Style 65 specific “Chrome Shadow” paint process, where a very deep finish is achieved with very dark shadows. Areas in the shade turn almost black instantly, where with standard silver paint they would just appear little darker than rest of the wheel.
It is very hard to produce identical finishes and stories told from BMW dealerships: That when a Style 65 Chrome Shadow wheel was to be replaced on a BMW, an existing wheel was brought in from car to show room and one matchedpicked from numerous wheels available to get the shade right. Even from factory the Chrome Shadow slightly varied from set of wheels to another set of wheels.
The original Chrome Shadow paint is manufactured in Italy and illegal in United States. The factory that produces Chrome Shadow original Style 65 paint, does not have any in stock and are unable to give a date when they will produce more paint as of September, 2019. The paint only comes in 50 liter barrels, which is the minimum order. In this case, a replacement Chrome Shadow paint was used at retail cost of 400 EUR per liter.
The below photos are all taken with same camera settings, on tripod, with two spot-lights on the wheels.
One spot light is static on the wheel from the side.
Other spot light is moved around.
The Volvo sign is in pure white, which serves as reference point for white, but you can see how dramatically the paint changes colors based on angles.
Above, did an experiment, sampled Volvo sign white color on 3 different pictures to see how much brighter/darker the WHITE Volvo sign is on each picture. Turns out the Volvo sign brightness is almost identical, but Chrome Shadow all changes when moving dimmed LED bar around and plays with light.
Photos area straight from camera with no filters.
Notice how when Chrome Shadow paint is illuminated by direct flash from camera, the shadow chrome changes behavior, and appears just standard silver. With Shadow Chrome paint, the contrast between bright/dark areas are accentuated, creating a very deep contrast look on ‘not so deep’ surfaces.